Personnel

CREW



Lt Clifton M.Williams                P   KIA   31/12/44 HAMBURG

Lt Kenneth W.Newkirk           CP  KIA 31/12/44 HAMBURG

Lt Richard F.Williams              NAV  KIA 31/12/44 HAMBURG           A/C #43 38124

Lt Lawrence W.Ward          BOM  POW  31/12/44 HAMBURG        MACR #11363,Fiche #4182

T/S/Sgt Charles J.McGinley     ROG    KIA 31/12/44 HAMBURG

T/Sgt .Alvin H.Petteys         TTE  KIA 31/12/44 HAMBURG

S/Sgt Lee F.Carpenter         BTG  KIA 31/12/44 HAMBURG

S/Sgt  James H.Murphy         WG   POW 31/12/44 HAMBURG TAPS: 1973

  Cpl  Gordon R.Sinclair         TG  CPT  15 /3/45 ORANIENBURG /WITH THE S. JOHNSON CREW AS NAV (see note)



351st Sqdn. Sqdn Diary of Sept.1944 notes this crew as joining the 100th Group in Sept. A Cpl.Harvey J.Lehman was 

on the crew at that time but no further record of him has turned up.



On 31/12/44, S/Sgt Roland L.Douglas,from the crew of Gerald Brown,was flying in place of Gordon Sinclair and was 

made a POW.



Note

Gordon Sinclair was removed from Navigator's school one day short of graduation for some unknown infraction, proably the Training Command acted  a bit over zealous in view of the need for trained Navigators.  The 351st Sqdn. Commander (Harry Cruver, a man known to have had some disagreement with training command personnel during his cadet days) corrected this bit of over zealousness by immediately promoting Sinclair to M/Sgt and  making him the Navigator for the Sidney Johnson crew, where he completed a tour.  This from Charles M. Beck, of the Sidney Johnson crew..pw



MISSIONS FLOWN BY LT LAWRENCE W. WARD.  (mpf…2003)



1.   30/09/44   BIELEFELD

2.   02/10/44   KASSEL

3.   05/10/44   HANDORF

4.   06/10/44   BERLIN

5.   07/10/44   BOHLEN

6.   09/10/44   MANINZ

7.   13/10/44   BREMEN

8.   17/10/44   COLOGNE

9.   18/10/44   KASSEL

10. 22/10/44   MUNSTER

11. 26/10/44   HANOVER

12. 02/11/44   MERSEBURG

13. 09/11/44   SAAR BRUCKEN

14. 16/11/44   LANGERWEKE (AACHEN AREA)

15. 21/11/44   OSNABRUCK  

16. 26/11/44   HAMM

17. 02/12/44   KOBLENZ

18. 04/12/44   FRIEDBURG 

19. 05/12/44   BERLIN

20. 11/12/44   KOBLENZ

21. 12/12/44   DARMSTADT

22. 27/12/44   FULDA

23. 28/12/44   KOBLENZ

24. 30/12/44   KASSEL

25. 31/12/44   HAMBURG-MISSING IN ACTION    





EYEWITNESS:  "A/C #43-38124 was broken in two by coilision with A/C #42-31066 which fell on it after A/C 42-31066 uas hit by flak. Both A/C

                       went down in flames.One chute was seen."



A/C 42-31066 was flown by the crew of Floyd E. Henderson. see below for Henderson crew roster..



The following is Lt Lawrence Ward's recollection of what occurred (written probably in late 1945):



"While we were on the bomb run the tail gunner called out an enemy jet high at six o'clock.In answer 

I checked the crew for oxygen and gave orders to all the gunners to be especially alert for enemy fighters.

All action began just as the squadron dropped their bombs.I only had time to say "Bombs Away" when

two terri fic explosions took place;one under the nose in the chin turret,the other some where around 

the center of the ship. The one under the nose was flak,and pieces of metal seemed to fill the air as they

tore thru the plexiglass and aluminum. It was at this moment that I received a hit over the left eye that stunned me. 

From then on,nothing is clear in my mind as to what happened.



We imnediately went into a spin and I remember trying to climb to the escape hatch but I didn't have strength

to overcome the other forces.The plane straightened into a dive and as I disentangled myself from all the 

debris I pulled the red cord on my flak suit,and started again for the hatch. In that one quick moment I

glimpsed the navigator lying on the catwalk on his elbows looking in my direction. This covered a fraction

of a second and then the nose seemed to disintegrate and I passed out.



When I came to I was in the open air and just automatically pulled the ripcordof my parachute. But nothing 

happened except the red handle came out - I threw it away and opened the chute by pulling the flaps 

open.I never remember the jolt of the chute opening - the next thing I knew was that I was dangling by one strap

It was a habit of mine to hook one side of the harness to the chute on the bomb run and it never occurred 

to me to fasten tne other side before opening it. By this time,the bleeding of my wound had stopped - evidently

because the blood over my face had frozen. However,hanging by one strap prevented me from having any control

over myself and I whirled around and around like a top,making me very sick at my stomach.



I made hasty plans as to evading,but when I landed it was within a fenced-in estate on the edge of Hamburg.

I was immediately surrounded by soldiers and civilians  They took me to the Luftwaffe base where three 

others from our squadron were being searched and held. One was my waist gunner and he is the one who 

told me the story of our plane.The other explosion I heard was another plane colliding with us,

slicing our plane in half at the ball turret.



When I was a prisioner,the wound over my eye thawed out and began to bleed again  I tried to get it 

bandaged but to no avail,so I bandaged it with a handkerchief, and it was over a month before it finally healed."



2ND LT FLOYD E. HENDERSON P       KIA 31 DEC 44  HAMBURG

2nd  Lt   Richard W. King          CP        KIA 31 DEC 44  HAMBURG

2nd   Lt   George J. Smigo, Jr   NAV    POW 31 DEC 44  HAMBURG

S/Sgt  Elmer L. Kovach        TOGG      KIA 31 DEC 44  HAMBURG

S/Sgt George J.Robinson         ROG      KIA  31 DEC 44  HAMBURG

 S/Sgt James W.Shepard         TTE      KIA  31 DEC 44  HAMBURG

   Sgt Leo O.Murphy               BTG     POW   31 DEC 44  HAMBURG

   Sgt Fred Horcasitas              WG      KIA   31 DEC 44  HAMBURG

   Sgt Frank S.Sauls                  TG     POW  31 DEC 44  HAMBURG